Lew-Port, University at Buffalo win national award

by jmaloni

Sat, Oct 20th 2012 07:00 am

Lewiston-Porter
High School and the University at Buffalo are in the national
spotlight with news that Lew-Port teachers Michelle Hinchliffe and
Colleen Glor, together with UB Professor of Chemistry Diana Aga,
Ph.D., are the recipients of a national science education award for
their efforts to train student scientists to measure pharmaceutical
contamination in Niagara County waterways.

Under
the faculty members' watch, Lewiston-Porter juniors and sophomores
are testing water from school water fountains, the Lewiston
wastewater treatment plant and local streams, including the Niagara
River.

Using
methods Aga developed, the students are measuring pharmaceutical
levels and checking for trends. They're trying to figure out, for
example, whether there's a correlation between flu season and the
presence of prescription drugs in water.

Aga,
Hinchliffe and Glor are the 2012 recipients of the SETAC/Menzie
Environmental Education Award, presented by the North America Society
of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry to recognize programs that
improve environmental science education, and environmental literacy
and awareness among youth and the general public.

The
award will be presented Nov. 11 at the SETAC North America 33rd
annual Meeting in Long Beach, Calif. The team will receive a plaque
and a $1,000 gift from the Menzie family, which the team plans to use
toward future sampling and analysis of water samples.

"As
high school teachers, we are extremely honored that our effort in
advancing authentic science education is being recognized at such a
distinguished level," Glor said. "We are also extremely grateful
that Dr. Aga shares our enthusiasm and also recognized how important
it is to make real-life scientific connections with our young
students."

Aga,
an environmental chemist, has been a pioneer in recognizing the
dangers that prescription drugs and personal care products pose to
the health of waterways.

Each
day, antibiotics, birth control pills, perfume and shampoo find their
way into lakes and rivers, releasing chemicals. Locally, scientists
have found contaminants including antidepressants in the Great Lakes,
which may lead to changes in the behavior of fish. Elsewhere,
researchers have identified veterinary antibiotics as a potential
cause of growing antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Aga
has studied the environmental impact of some harmful substances and
is currently researching how various treatment processes can
effectively remove pharmaceuticals from wastewater.

It's
because of this expertise that Hinchliffe and Glor, who teach
chemistry and earth science, respectively, approached Aga for help in
2011. The pair wanted to give Lew-Port students hands-on experience
in science by asking them to analyze area water sources, and Aga
agreed to assist.

"I
felt that it was very important to participate because I am a strong
supporter of having younger people get involved very early in their
career with hands-on research experience to get excited with
science," Aga said. "This is the most effective way of learning
and retaining information. When students see from firsthand
information, from their own work, that the environment is vulnerable
to pharmaceutical contamination from wastewater treatment plants,
they will be more conscientious about protecting the environment."

Students
in the Lewiston-Porter program design and conduct their own
experiments and draw connections between their findings and reports
by other scientists.

Some
of the young researchers traveled to Japan in spring 2011 to present
at an International Water Forum and to Winnipeg in Canada to present
at the 2012 International Super Science Fair. Lewiston-Porter High
School also hosted 15 Japanese students and teachers to exchange
information on water research. A new group of high school students is
being trained and is planning to attend the 2013 International Super
Science Fair in Camborne, England in July.

Future
plans also include working with Helen Domske - New York Sea Grant
senior coastal education specialist and associate director of UB's
Great Lakes Program - to develop a program for educating the public
about how to properly dispose of unused prescription drugs.

"This
has been an extraordinary experience for all of us," Hinchliffe
said. "Any science educator will tell you the importance of the
scientific method. For the past two years, our student scientists
have been experimenting on local water supplies to determine
pharmaceutical concentrations, analyzing concentration data to
correlate seasonal trends and generating ideas to bring community
awareness to this issue. This is as real as it gets."